Using CRM For Customer Experience

The Personalization Gap Between the Online vs Offline Hotel Guest Experience Earlier this week, Hospitality Net and its topic champ Floor Bleeker asked its World Panel of Information Technology Experts a very important question about solving the the personalization gap between hotel guests’ online vs. offline experience. The current situation has been haunting the hospitality industry for decades. Hotels have invested heavily in digital personalization, from tailored offers and curated booking paths to guest recognition online. Yet when travelers arrive on property, the experience often falls short of those expectations. The handoff between digital profiles and on-site service remains a weak link, leaving many guests wondering why the "personal touch" stops at the front desk. Here is my take: I see two quick technology solutions to ensure guest data collected digitally translates into more personal on-property guest experience: 1. CRM technology API-ed two-way with the property PMS: the CRM provides "a single source of truth" for the guest data and creates 360-degree guest profiles, augments these with preferences, social media ambassadorship, customer engagement data, etc., which enables ALL hotel departments to do their job more efficiently and effectively. The online “portrait” of each guest who booked via the hotel website can be automatically conveyed to the front desk and other departments. Ex. Operations can now anticipate guest requests and preferences by arriving guests and personalize customer experiences; Front Desk can offer upgrades and cross-sells; Marketing can identify “best guests” and embark on similar audiences marketing and significantly increase conversions and ROI. 2. Website CMS (Content Management System) API-ed with the property PMS: the website CMS and its analytics know the guest pathing behavior, website pages visited, time spent on each of them, action buttons clicked, etc. for all guests who booked via the hotel website. Ex. Today, if the website visitor spends time on the spa page or spends significant time on the wine list of the restaurant menu, the property has no idea about these guest’s interests. The CMS can inform the front desk about any such interest of arriving guests booked via the hotel website, and the front desk can convert these interests into actual services: "Mr. Smith, here is a $50 voucher toward a treatment at our spa." Or “Mr. Smith, here is coupon for a free glass of wine at our restaurant.” The opportunities are truly limitless! At NextGuest, now part of Cendyn, we had both capabilities a decade ago.

Every hospitality brand I meet thinks they need more tech. They actually need less...but smarter 🧠 Been spending time with restaurant and hotel operators lately. The pattern is clear: They're not suffering from a lack of data. They're drowning in it. The real challenge isn't capturing first-party data. It's knowing which data matters for building lifetime guest value and efficiently connecting it. Here's what separates the winners from everyone else: They start with three simple questions: • What do we know about our guests today? • What should we know to serve them better tomorrow? • How do we connect those dots without adding complexity? The best operators are ruthless about integration priorities. They're not chasing every shiny new platform. They're building thoughtful tech stacks that turn moments into memories - and memories into loyalty. Take our recent work with hospitality brands at Klaviyo. The magic happens when you connect the right systems at the right touchpoints: -PMS data tells you when they stayed and what they spent. -Dining data shows their preferences and occasions. -Engagement data reveals what actually drives them back. Stack these insights together, and suddenly you're not just sending emails. You're creating experiences that feel personal because they are personal. One hotel partner told me: "We stopped thinking about systems and started thinking about stories. Every guest has one. Our job is to remember it." That shift, from data collection to relationship cultivation, changes everything 📈 The platforms charging you commission fees hope you never figure this out ‼️ But forward-thinking brands already have. Your guests aren't looking for another app or loyalty program. They're looking for you to know them. And with the right approach to first-party data, you can. Ready to turn your guest data into lasting relationships? Let's explore what's possible when technology serves hospitality, not the other way around. #hospitalitytech #restaurantmarketing #hoteltech #guestexperience #firstpartydata

Speed is good. Had a chance to talk with Josh Henegar, Corporate Revenue Director at 1859 Historic Hotels, Ltd about his CRS-CRM integration. The Frankenstack of tech he was working with prior to SHR gave only: • Guest data stuck in silos • Email delivery delays of hours/days • Manual workarounds eating up time • "Large part of the challenge we had with delivery times" With SHR's CRS and CRM (previously known as Windsurfer and Maverick), he gets: - Instant data sync: "Whatever landed in Windsurfer ended up in Maverick immediately" - Real-time guest profiles: Guest information showing up in CRM instantly - Seamless troubleshooting: Easy cross-checking between reservation and marketing data - Unified workflow: No more jumping between disconnected systems The Insight: "Everything was quicker. You know, the guest information was showing up in the CRM immediately. That was definitely not the case with the other guys." The Real Value: It wasn't just about efficiency. Integrated systems meant: • Better guest experience (timely communications) • Staff could focus on hospitality, not data entry • Reliable operations during peak times Josh's Bottom Line: "Speed is good." When your CRS and CRM work as one system, you're not managing technology - you're delivering hospitality. The Lesson: Don't just buy best-in-class point solutions. Find systems designed to work together from day one.

Marriott International knows what a guest ate, slept, spent, and watched for a week. They use that data the same way they did in 2018. The AI age belongs to hotels that personalize what they know. Here is what I mean. A guest checks out of a JW Marriott on Sunday. They had pad thai twice. They used the spa once. They booked a sunset cruise on Friday and browsed but did not book the second one. They watched two specific movies in the room. They never came down for breakfast. They tipped 22 percent on every check. The hotel knows all of it. Forty-eight hours later the guest gets one email. A TripAdvisor link. Same template the property has used since 2015. Meanwhile that same guest is being personalized to by Spotify, Amazon, Netflix, Instagram, and the airline they flew home on. Five algorithms have already updated their profile based on the trip. The hotel that hosted them for a week has not. The math on this is brutal. A JW-tier resort at 70 percent occupancy hosts roughly 145,000 unique guests a year. Best-in-class hotels convert 25 to 35 percent of those into repeat stays. Industry average sits closer to 10 percent. The gap between best-in-class and average for a single 810-key property, at JW ADRs and ancillary attach, is north of 12 million dollars a year in direct repeat revenue alone. That is before referrals. Before reviews. Before the next guest's lifetime value. That gap is not caused by a bad CRM. The hotel has the CRM. They have the data. They have the email tool. What they do not have is the workflow that turns what the property already knows about the guest into the right next message at the right next moment. Every AI product being pitched to hotels right now activates at check-in. The chatbot is ready. The voice agent is staffed. The app is personalized. None of it does anything once the guest has checked out. The actual opportunity is the other direction entirely. An outbound AI concierge that uses what the property already knows about the guest to keep the relationship alive after they leave. Not a survey. A specific personalized reach-out that turns a one-time stay into a returning guest before the competitor's next email lands. The thank-you for the spa visit they actually used. The early notice on next year's restaurant week. The room they kept browsing on departure day, held for them in October. This is exactly what we have been building and deploying with hotel operators. The tools to actually act on the data the property has been collecting for a decade. If you are running a property and want to understand what the post-stay workflow looks like in practice, send me a message. What does your current post-stay outreach look like?